Todays geared bikes are really marvels of technology, and let a cyclist select the gear ratio that will make the most efficient use of their energy. If what you’re after is getting the maximum possible speed and distance for the minimum amount of effort a geared bike is what you should stay with…but, efficiency isn’t for everyone and most riders love a challenge.

Wether you’re riding for pleasure, or for exercise, you don’t necessarily place that high a premium on output results, as measured in speed, distance or vertical climb. Instead, you may care more about the actual experience of riding your bike. In this case, a single speed may be right up your alley.

Riding a single speed can help bring back the absolute joy you experienced riding your bike as a child. You don’t realize how much mental energy is involved in shifting until you cut free of your derailers, and discover that a whole part of your brain that was formerly wondering when to shift is now free to enjoy your surroundings and sensations.

A single speed is, in another sense more efficient than a geared bike! While the single gear ratio will not be the most precise gear ratio for all conditions, in the conditions which fit the single gear, it is considerably more efficient mechanically than the drivetrain of a bike with derailers.

A single speed bike dispenses with the weight of the derailers, shifters, cables, extra gears and the loud longer chain. In addition, a single speed gear train runs the chain in a perfectly straight line from wheel to front chain ring, and avoids the serpentine wind through the pulleys of a derailer. You can really feel the difference! A single speed is noticeably quicker and easier to pedal than a geared bike in the same gear ratio.

Single speed bikes are also considerably more sturdy and reliable than geared bikes. There’s no derailer to bash if the bike falls over, catch on the rock/stumps or to get overshifted into the spokes of your wheel. The rear wheel itself is a lot stronger than one made with off-center (dished) spoking to make room for a whole bunch of sprockets on one side.

So go for it, build a single speed and ride free !!!